things we lost in the fire
by MaioribusSpes
Summary: She's torn down his walls, but this side of him is one that no one - not even himself - has seen before. / "Faraway in the distance, he can hear Korra yelling his name, but he doesn't respond, can't respond, because the two people he's been waiting his whole life to see again are right in front of him."
1. Chapter 1

_all that we've amassed  
sits before us, shattered into ash_

* * *

Korra does not know how to deal with spirits. And she _definitely _doesn't know how to deal with firebending spirits. One would think she'd be able to (she's the Avatar, why _wouldn't _she be able to?) But this spirit does not react at all to the endless amount of fire she hurls at it, or _any_ element, for that matter. Fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, earth does not stop it, and air goes straight through it.

For the first time in her life, Korra does not have the upper hand.

The spirit ignites itself on fire, and Korra has to shield her eyes to avoid becoming temporarily blinded. As the light diminishes from the edges of her vision, she puts her arm down to find black smoke curling up all around her, and it doesn't take long before it engulfes her completely.

The smoke burns Korra's eyes and her vision becomes blurry, and as she takes another labored breath her lungs fill with dust and ash, and she clutches her side, coughing violently.

Somewhere far into the thick curtain of black smoke Korra manages to make out the spirits figure, and she stumbles towards it, wiping at her eyes.

The smoke gradually clears until she can see the snow covered ground beneath her feet and a halo of golden light emitting from the ground. The barrier between the mortal world and spirit world is becoming weaker and weaker, and circles of light like these indicate where the barrier has completely broken down, allowing the mortal world complete access to the spirit world and vice versa.

She takes a deep breath in and sprints towards the center of the circle. As she passes through the light her eyes are blinded from the brightness, and there's an unfamiliar pressure all around her before everything goes black.

* * *

"Can you see Korra?" Mako asks Bolin as the two brothers run through the bitterly cold wind, their feet crunching the snow beneath them. He should've known something like this would happen. Leave it up Korra to spot something strange and leave in pursuit of it without saying a word.

"I think I saw her come out of the smoke," Bolin answers, and the two approach the huge, dark, curling mass of smoke.

"Hold your breath," advises Mako right before they enter. His eyes begin to water immediately and he tries to run as fast as he can to quickly get out of the smoke. Just as his lungs are right about to give out and he is readying himself to take a breath, he comes out of the smoke and into the wide expanse of the tundra.

He collapses on the snow and wheezes, and Bolin comes out of the smoke right then, coughing heavily. The two stay like that for a few seconds, trying to catch their breath, before Bolin lifts his finger up and points in front of them.

"Mako," he gasps. "Is that...?"

A circle of light shines out from the ground, glowing a yellowish hue.

"That's the spirit world," Mako says, quickly getting up off his feet and grabbing his brother by the wrist. "I bet that's where Korra is. Come on, we've got to go inside."

The two brothers run into the light, and disappear.

* * *

Korra opens her eyes and a soft gasp comes out of her mouth.

The scenery surrounding her is unlike anything she's ever seen before. Everything around her is lush and green and lively and absolutely _breathtaking_. She's never paid much attention to nature or anything of the sort, never been the kind of person to, but now she regrets it.

She turns around and hears the waters of the river move behind her.

"Avatar Korra," a voice says, "it's nice to see you. Your first visit into the spirit world, am I correct?"

She whips around and gasps at the person in front of her.

"A-Avatar Kyoshi?" she asks, and the woman's red lips turn downwards into a scowl.

"Really, Korra. I'm disappointed that you have to ask."

"I'm sorry, but I really need your help," Korra tells her. She's surprised at just how damn _tall_ the woman in front of her is, and her height just adds to her intimidating aura. Though Korra has heard plenty of stories about her massive stature, along with her inability to put up with bullshit, she is not prepared anything like this at all. The earthbending Avatar reminds her very much of... Lin Beifong.

"What do you need?" asks Kyoshi.

"I- I need to keep the barrier between the mortal world and the spirit world strong. Right now it's really weak, and spirits are just coming in and out of the mortal world whenever they please," Korra explains. "And I'm really confused, because Jinora - that's Tenzin's daughter, but you probably already knew that - told me that spirits had to give up their immortality in order to exist in the mortal world."

"What do the spirits look like in the mortal world?"

Korra pauses and her eyebrows scrunch up in confusion.

"Um, what does that have to do with anyth-"

"Just answer the question," Kyoshi says firmly.

"Uh, they look, um, weird. And they have all these arms," Korra explains, flailing her arms around in an attempt to demonstrate.

Kyoshi sighs. "And when you try to use your bending, what happens?" she asks, clearly unamused.

_They beat the shit out of me_.

"Well, nothing, really," Korra answers. "But Unalaq, the chief of the Northern Water Tribe, he can control them. He's supposed to start teaching me about how to do all that spiritual stuff, but, um, he hasn't yet."

"So you just entered the spirit world without any spiritual training whatsoever?" Kyoshi asks.

"No!" Korra defends, crossing her arms. "Tenzin makes me meditate. I can meditate. Sometimes."

"Listen, Korra. I had some trouble with the spiritual aspect of being the Avatar as well," Kyoshi tells her, now unusually serious. "But it has to be done, and the sooner, the better. Especially in your case."

Korra can't tell if she's insulting her or not.

"The spirits that are in the mortal world right now are still most likely immortal. From your detailed description," Kyoshi says, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "They are still spirits. They do not have solid, physical bodies. They simply wandered out of the spirit world into the mortal world. Before you do anything, you must make sure all the spirits are back in the spirit world."

"And how do I do that?" Korra questions.

"I believe that job is for your spiritual mentor," Kyoshi answers.

"...so there's nothing you can teach me or help me with?" Korra asks, disappointed.

"I can't _make_ you get in touch with your spiritual side, if that's what you're wanting me to do. You need to learn patience, you need to learn restraint. You need to learn how to _be_ spiritual," explains the past Avatar. "You have easily mastered the physical side to being the Avatar, but you have no idea how to even get in touch with your spiritual side."

"Well thanks for your help," Korra says, growing frustrated. Like she doesn't know she has trouble with being spiritual! _Half-baked Avatar._

"See? This is what I mean," Kyoshi points out. "You show great promise, Korra. But if you continue to be as stubborn as you are, you will never reach your full potential. You must bring back balance between the two worlds," Kyoshi tells her. "Terrible things happen when there is no balance."

"I know." Korra nods.

"I believe you can, Korra. Good luck."

And with that, Kyoshi's body slips back into river, and she is gone.

* * *

As soon as he enters the spirit world, Mako immediately notices something is wrong.

Bolin is nowhere near him.

"Bolin?" he calls out, circling around the area. "Bolin?"

_This is not good, this is not good. _Mako begins to panic, but forces himself to take a few deep breaths and clear his mind. Panicking will not help him.

"Bolin!" he shouts, his voice echoing. "Where are you?"

He walks towards a large grassy field he sees in the distance, his thoughts clouded with worry. His little brother is lost, and he has no idea where to look for him, because he too, is lost. But what's the worst that can happen, right? At least he hasn't been kidnapped by Amon this time, right? How much trouble could Bolin possibly get himself into here?

Mako forces himself not to ponder the last question.

"Bolin!" he yells.

And then he hears something. Someone is shouting his name, but it's not Bolin. It's... Korra.

"Mako?" her voice shouts in the distance. "Where the hell are you?"

Definitely Korra.

"Korra! I think I can see you," he replies, noticing a small figure near a river. "Just- _oomph_!"

He trips over a large branch on the ground, and he falls face first onto the dirt.

Groaning, he gets up, spitting the dirt out of his mouth and brushing himself off.

"I swear to-"

He stops midsentence as he looks up and finds himself staring at two very familiar people. Their faces look exactly the same as the ones that are burned on the back of his eyelids; the same ones he sees every night, in his happiest dreams and his worst nightmares.

"Mom? Dad?" he whispers, in a voice so fragile it frightens himself.

Faraway in the distance, he can hear Korra yelling his name, but he doesn't respond, can't respond, because the two people he's been waiting his whole life to see again are right in front of him.

* * *

**A/N: Oops, cliffhanger. ****Sorry not sorry.**** I plan on this fic being a series of three oneshots with a possible epilogue. I know there's not really any Makorra action at all right now, but there will be much, much, more in the next one. Follow to know when I post the next part up, and review so I can get some feedback! (Also this fic is set in Book 2 ok yes good)**

_(ALSO THE BOOK 2 TRAILER AND THE EPISODE LIKE PLEASE DEAR LORD HELP ME I WANT TO CRY I CAN' I'M SO EXCITED IT'S BEEN TOO LONG OH GOD MAKO AND KORRA KICKING ASS TOGETHER AND FEEDING EACH OTHER COTTON CANDY MAKO BEING A DORK IN HIS COP UNIFORM I AM D EA D)_


	2. Chapter 2

_you said we were born with nothing  
and we sure as hell have nothing now_

* * *

Bolin grudgingly gets up off from the ground, groaning and rubbing his sore leg.

"I think I broke something, bro," he tells Mako, but no one responds.

The earthbender looks around him, searching for signs of his sibling. The setting around him isn't at all what he had in mind for the spirit world. It's kind of dull, to be honest. And creepy. Everything is brown and beige and _dark_, and there's a particularly freaky looking tree close by, with its branches twisted in a way that isn't normal.

"Makooo," he calls out, trying to not pay attention to endless echo that his voice creates and the sharp _crunch_ of the leaves beneath his feet.

"Makoo, where are you?" He's getting really weird vibes from this place, and he wants to get out of here as soon as possible. He walks around and finds himself staring at a weird monkey-looking creature, sitting cross-legged.

"Um, hello?" Bolin asks. The monkey does not respond.

"Hello?" he repeats, louder this time. The monkey cracks open an eye.

"What." He closes his eye and sighs loudly, clearly annoyed.

"I'm uh- looking for my brother. And Korra. The Avatar," Bolin explains, hoping that this spirit can give him some help.

The spirits eyes are open now.

"A human, huh?" he asks with a frown. Bolin nods slightly. "Interesting. Haven't seen one of you in a while. Do you see that light over there?" He lifts a wrinkly, oddly human-looking finger and points to a small ball of light floating in the sky.

"Follow that light," he advises, and then shuts his eyes again. "Now leave me alone."

Bolin mutters a 'thank you' and sprints off in direction of the light, desperate to get away from the cranky spirit and find his brother and best friend.

* * *

"Mom? Dad?" Mako repeats again, because they're not responding, just looking at him with a soft smile, but dammit, he wants them to _say_ something, or do something that will prove that they're real and not just some vision his mind has produced.

"Say something," he says, his throat dry. Why aren't they _saying_ anything? It's been a decade since he's last seen them, and he misses them so much and they've got to miss him too, right?

But they stay silent, their semi-transparent lips smiling sadly at him and their eyes soft.

"Why won't you _say_ anything?" he shouts, pounding a fist into ground. He's beginning to lose his usual steel grip on his emotions, and with every second that passes by the rein gets looser and looser.

(He misses them so much.)

* * *

"Mako?" Korra asks, seeing the back of his head. "Hey, what you doing? I thought you were going to-"

She stops abruptly as she gets closer to him, noticing that he's on his knees.

"Mako? What's wrong?" she asks, and that's when she sees _them._ Two spirits floating just a few inches above the ground, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Bolin and Mako. She's never seen them before, not even in pictures (she knew Mako had some, but she also knew that the topic of his parents was one that was extremely hard to talk, even think, about) but she knows immediately that these are the brother's parents.

"Korra," Mako cries out, not even looking back at her. His voice comes out strained, like he's being strangled. "Why - why aren't they talking? Can't spirits talk? I thought that they could all speak - it's not like they're _animals_, or anything-"

"I- I don't know," Korra answers truthfully, after a moment of pause. "All human spirits can talk, from what I've learned, I don't know why they wouldn't..." she trails off, trying to remember something Jinora had taught her. There was something about... about how there were _extremely_ talented spirits that had the ability to shape into anyone or anything they wanted to. And there was something else, something awful and malicious and-

They did this to try and convince people into staying in the spirit world forever.

"These aren't your parents," Korra gasps loudly. "They're shape shifting spirits. They're trying to trick you." _And they're succeeding._

"They're not your parents," she repeats, hoping that if she just says it enough times Mako will believe her.

For the first time since she's arrived, Mako looks back over his shoulder at her.

"What are you talking about?" he asks her, incredulous. "Look at them! Can't you tell? People always used to tell me that I looked like my dad," he says.

Korra bites her lip and observes the man on the left, and the similarities between him and his son are almost frightening. Their eyes are the same shade of amber, but his father's eyes are softer, and lack the steely glint of Mako's, a difference Korra assumes wouldn't have existed if his father had still been in his life.

"Y- yeah, I can see it," Korra says, a small lump growing in her throat. "But Mako, these are just spirits that look your parents. They're not actually-"

"My parents," Mako finishes. "Right. But how do I know that, Korra? They look exactly as they did before..." He clenches his hand in a fist and releases it, then clenches it again and now he's shaking and he can't stop, dammit-

Korra doesn't know how to react. She's never been particularly good at comforting people, and never in a million years would she have expected that out of all people, _Mako_ would be the one she would have to comfort. She knows she should do something, _anything_, but for some reason she feels that no action could comfort him. She wants to reach out and touch his shoulder, or wrap her arms around him to show that _yes_, even though Mako always does a better job of showing it towards her, she really, truly cares for him, but he looks so fragile right now she's afraid the slightest touch could make him break.

(She may have succeeded in tearing down his his walls, but this is a side of him that no one - not even himself - has seen.)

"We need to leave," Korra whispers, because it's all she can do. She has to make Mako believe her. (She almost wants to laugh at the irony of it all. Right now, _she's_ the one being rational and Mako is the one who's loosing the grip on his emotions. She almost wants to laugh, but the situation they're in changes it all.)

"I can't just leave them here!" he shouts at her, making her jump. "You don't understand, Korra," he says, his voice softer but bitter all the same. "You still have your parents, you don't know what it's like."

"I know I don't," Korra replies, because even though she hasn't spent a lot of real quality time with her parents, she still _has_ them, and that makes all the difference. "I don't have a single damn clue what it's like, but I do know that these are your parents, and you have to realize that too." Her eyes are getting blurry and she realizes it's because of the tears gathering up in them. She doesn't know why she's even crying, these are Mako's parents, not hers, she has no right-

"Korra, could you just- could you just leave me alone for a second? I need some time to think," Mako says, running his hands through his hair.

In any other case, Korra would've just nodded and left him alone in a heartbeat. But this was different.

"I'm sorry, Mako, I can't," she protests. "If you stay here, a little while is going to turn into forever before you know it. And you can't - you can't stay here because I - _we_ need you. We need you and you know it and- and Bolin and I, what are we going to do without you?" She's rambling now, and the tears are falling from her face because _dammit_, she can't lose him, not like this.

"Bolin," Mako mumbles. "Bolin, where is he?" (Of course he would immediately start sobering up at the mention of his brother, why didn't she realize it earlier?)

Then Korra scrunches her face up and realizes that she has no idea where the hell Bolin is.

"I don't know," she replies. "Did he come here with you?"

"Yeah." Mako closes his eyes, trying to concentrate. _Bolin_, he tells himself. _You still have Bolin and you better not screw that up too_.

"Yeah," he repeats. "But we got kind of... separated as soon as we entered."

"Will you come with me and help save your little brother's ass, then?" Korra asks, but it all comes out more desperate and pleading than she wants it to. She kneels down and captures his hand in hers. (They've held hands so many times before, but now she is holding on to him for dear life, begging him to come with her.)

"They're not real," she whispers in his ear, for what seems like the hundredth time.

He swallows hard and nods, gripping her hand tight.

"Yeah," he agrees, his voice hoarse and raspy. "I believe you." He stands up, Korra coming up with him, and takes one last look at his lookalike parents and exhales.

(Korra isn't sure, but she thinks she hears him whisper "goodbye" before he ducks his head down and turns his back on them, and they don't look back.)

* * *

The glowing light travels a lot faster than Bolin expects it to, and he has to move at a jogging pace to keep up with it. He follows it through the spirit world, and sees the dull, lifeless landscape around him slowly blend into one bursting with color and life, much more like the surroundings he expected.

Once he's been surrounded by green for a while, he sees two familiar figures in the distance. The light buzzes and pushes ahead, and Bolin breaks into a sprint.

"Mako! Korra!" he shouts, flailing his hands around.

They look up then, and start running too.

Bolin crushes his brother into a hug, and Mako laughs softly as he pats his little brother's head.

They separate, and Bolin goes to hug Korra.

"Where _were_ you guys?" he asks. "I got dumped off into this really weird area, but I talked to some monkey spirit and then this guy led me here." He points up to the fluttering light above them.

"Thanks, buddy!" he tells it, and it buzzes and flies off.

"I-" Mako begins, and then pauses.

"I was worried about you," he finishes, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

Korra looks at him from her position behind Bolin, and Mako gives her a look that reads _it's better if he doesn't know. _If Bolin found out about what had happened, Mako is sure that it would be much, much harder to walk away a second time.

"Aw, bro," Bolin chuckles, lightly punching Mako in the stomach. "It's okay. We all found each other, right? Now can we please get out of here?"

They all nod in agreement and walk into the light, out of the spirit world and back into the mortal world.

(In the back of his mind Mako thinks about his parents, and realizes he can put off seeing them again for a while, as long as these two people - the ones that matter the most - are around.)


End file.
